Morning Links: A reminder to always ride with water, and why drivers continue to flee following crashes

Got an email late Thursday telling me I almost lost a friend last week.

Long story short: Heatstroke.

I rode from Seal Beach to Azusa, then “rested” under a bridge by the San Gabriel River, viciously under-hydrated, out of water, with the temperature climbing, because I’m a moron.

I banged up my shoulder tripping against the concrete pier. I hallucinated. I blacked out. I threw up the first bottle of water that a good stranger gave me. Retrospect terrifies me: I actually could’ve passed out permanently under that bridge.

I’m heading back this afternoon to put up a thank-you poster because I never got the name of the guy who rescued me, got me water/Gatorade/ice, put me in his air-conditioned car, and kept me from wandering off. If he didn’t save the coroner a bunch of work, he at least spared me from crushing hospital bills.

Let that be a reminder to always carry more water than you think you’ll need. And remember to actually drink it, especially on hot days.

You should also make sure to have a little cash with you, so you can duck into a store or gas station to buy more in case you run out.

And always carry some form of ID when you ride, just in case a stranger finds you passed out under a bridge somewhere.

………

Evidently, there’s no reason not to flee after collision.

A Whittier woman got less than a slap on the wrist — more like a pat on the back — for last year’s South Pasadena hit-and-run wreck that injured a couple and their baby, and killed the family dog. While driving on a suspended license, no less.

None of that seems to matter, though, as she threw herself on the mercy of the court. And was richly rewarded with just three years probation and 30 days Caltrans duty.

That’s it.

So as long as the courts refuse to take hit-and-run seriously, let alone a license to drive, why should anyone else?

CiclaValley professes profound indifference to the new bike lanes on Vineland. Here’s what usually happens: They put bike lanes where no one wants them, so no one uses them. Then say there’s no point in building more bike lanes, because we don’t use the ones we’ve got.

A Santa Ana cyclist suffered major injuries when he reportedly lost control of his bike and veered into the path of an oncoming pickup Wednesday night. The story reports he was riding east in a bike lane on the 900 block of East McFadden Ave; however, there aren’t any there for him to veer out of. Thanks to Lois for the heads-up, and thanks to David Huntsman for pointing out the lack of bike lanes.

A new infographic from People for Bikes provides stats on children and bicycling; despite the perception that kids don’t ride bikes anymore, 57% ride an average of 40 days a year. That could show a lot of improvement if more parents felt safe letting their children ride to school and more administrators would allow it.

Bicycling offers tips on how to finance your new bike. Just don’t buy more bike than you can afford, or go into debt if you can’t comfortably manage the payments.

This is so not what bicycles are for. A Montana man is under arrest for repeatedly punching his girlfriend and whacking her with his bike. Hopefully, she’ll get the hell out before he makes bail.

Five college-bound Chicago teens show up in a Mercedes to beat and pepper spray a man in an attempt to steal the $500 bike he was selling. That scholarship to Cal Poly won’t be used anytime soon.

The parents of a soldier killed in Afghanistan are fulfilling his dream of building a parking lot where Minnesota cyclists can safely unload their bikes away from a busy roadway.

7 comments

Long rides I take the camelbak and its is filled with ice/gatorade, plus two water bottles. The cash is a good idea. On the wakeup screen of my phone it lists my name and ICE (in case of emergency) contact number.

We’ve seen this happen a lot during the past couple of summers riding in the heat. We think we have developed a pretty cool solution to help cyclists actually “beat-the-heat” not just avoid it, which isn’t always possible or deal with the consequences.
I was moved by hearing your friends story and thought he could have benefited by being able to really lower his skin temp 20+ degrees while he was riding. Not only that but he wouldn’t have wasted any of his valuable water trying to cool down.

Is there some reason you ignore the Paris Brest Paris race? This race, or at least the bicycles ridden by many of its participants are or should be considered far more relevant to people who use bicycles as transportation. It’s an unsupported race in which people use well equipped bicycles and fix their own flats.

It’s not that I’m ignoring it, just that I haven’t seen any news stories about it that I think would interest most people. The only story I’ve seen so far was about a man from a small town who was planning to compete in it; unfortunately, it was written in a way that it would only have been of interest to local readers.

My wife and I were dangerously close to heat stroke when we ran out of water on a hike once. It scared us straight, and now we’re much more careful, whatever we are doing outside.

We both like our Road ID bracelets for ID. I guess carrying some cash is good, but I prefer a debit card. I can buy almost anything I would need with it, and if I need cash I can get that, too. I guess it wouldn’t work as well as cash if I needed to line the inside of a sliced up tire 🙂

For such a beautiful sport, it will ALWAYS get ruined by a few (or many) people who find it better to cheat. So, to avoid further issues, we have to continue down the road of dopers being caught and reprimanded. Sponsors need to understand that it is not a representation of them, but of the rider and the staff that support that rider. So the sport must continue, and JV needs to buckle up and be prepared for his past to always haunt him. He should not make stupid comments like this when he knows there are people he will not always be able to control.

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